Last week saw designers from different nations across the continent showcase their glamorous designs at the African Fashion International Cape Town Fashion Week 2018, where South African sought-after designer, Gavin Rajah, opened the event with favorite looks from his collection “ready to live” (Pret a Vevre) in grand style.The event which took place from the 21st to 24th of March, 2018, hosted top designers including Ghana’s own Princess Bertha Logan-Owusu of Lumiere Couture Official, Fashion brand Khosi Nkosi, Imprint by Mzukisi Mbane who showcased modern and classic collections with the theme: #IAmAfrica. The showcase wowed the audience with its collections of stylish outfits, with other brands from Morocco, Senegal, Kenya, Tanzania, Congo Kinshasa and Nigeria.

Energy in the atmosphere of the event was contagious as the show took audiences on an indigenous journey with a touch of high fashion, followed by rounds of applause and screams of delight for favorite designs featured on stage that had photographers scrambled to get shots of.

Moroccan designer, Salima Abdel-Wahab, showcased her line inspired by Moroccan culture.Imprint by Mzukisi MbaneNobukhosi Nkosi celebrating all women with her collection.

Nobukhosi Nkosi showered audiences, both present and online, with a healthy dose of body positivity from her collection which incorporated all shapes and sizes, orchestrating a runway model competition on Instagram, that saw the curvy model, Oyama Botha, walk away with more than 12000 votes after strutting to cheers from adoring fans.

For the first time, the AFI platform showcased a jewelry and accessory designer, Adele Dejak, from Kenya. Her designs are handcrafted, luxury fashion accessories inspired by the African continent’s tradition of adornment and its immense cultural heritage.

According to an article, Senegalese fashion designer, Adama Paris was quoted saying that “her pieces bridge cultures and are accessible to those who refuse to be defined by one limited image too often controlled.”

Maxhosa by South African designer, Laduma Ngxokolo, left fashion lovers in awe with a line that celebrated various facets of the designer’s Xhosa heritage and upbringing in Nelson Mandela Bay, with Xhosa bead-work which inspired the first designs created by Ngxokolo, and has since come to inform his whole label.

The contemporary scene in Africa continues to flourish as the African people continue to creatively incorporate the rich history of the continent in its fashion, and in every other space where young Africans dominate.

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